Corvette C7.R Race Car Gets Green Light at 2014 NAIAS

If you swear you just heard something that sounded an awful lot like the cartoonish gulps of every other endurance racing team in America, there’s a good reason: Chevrolet unveiled the beastly-looking Corvette C7.R race car at the 2014 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). The latest vehicle that Corvette Racing will send into battle was built alongside the freshly-revealed 2015 Corvette Z06, which was unveiled just moments before the C7.R bowed. Both road- and race-ready Corvettes were created side-by-side in order to fuse the engineering process to ensure unparalleled engineering for those who drive Corvettes for business and pleasure alike.

“When it comes to endurance racing, Corvette has been the benchmark of success for nearly 15 years,” said Jim Campbell, U.S. vice president, Performance Vehicles and Motorsports, in a press release issued by General Motors this afternoon. “A great deal of the team’s success can be attributed to the symbiotic relationship between Corvette Racing and the production vehicles. The 2015 Corvette Z06 and new C7.R will be more competitive on the street and track due to successful design of the Corvette Stingray – which itself is heavily based on the C6.R race car.”

Corvette C7.R Gets Right to the Action

In 2014, Corvette Racing will bring two Corvette C7.R race cars to the inaugural season of the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. The first race—January 25-26th’s Rolex 24 at Daytona—will mark the competition debut for the C7.R, which will compete in the GT Le Mans class.

Additionally, all early indications suggest that the Corvette C7.R race car will compete in June’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in the GTE Pro class. Chevrolet and Corvette Racing have won the prestigious race a total of seven times.

Corvette C7.R and 2015 Corvette Z06: Kith and Kin

The Corvette C7.R and the 2015 Corvette Z06 will both share a number of elements, including the same aluminum frame built at the Bowling Green, Kentucky, Assembly Plant, a direct fuel injection engine, and supreme aerodynamics for maximum downforce potential.

“Corvette Racing sets the gold standard for technology transfer between the track and street,” said Tadge Juechter, Corvette chief engineer. “We are continually taking what we learn in competition, and applying it to improve production Corvettes – which then make better race cars. As a result, the new Corvette Z06 is the most track-capable production Corvette ever while the new C7.R is poised to be even more competitive on the race circuit.”